I smoked over a pack a day for 15 years and got really overweight. Now I'm an endurance junkie with lots of marathons, century rides, half and full ironmans, and ultramarathons under my belt. Check back often to watch the progress from smoking 26.2 cigarettes a day to running 26.2 miles, or from Iron Lung to Ironman.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Going Ultralong

The Snail is a good friend and a bad influence. Let's hope he's a better race director. He's stepped up and taken the reigns at the Pine Mountain 40 mile ultramarathon, and one text message was all it took to convince me to register. Since pacing at the Umstead 100 this year I've been feeling the bug for trail ultras. It's a weird counter-culture that can easily suck you in. These strange people just love running through the woods for hours on end. I get it, and it kind of scares me. The race is December 2nd, so it goes on this year's calendar.

And in true CJ fashion, I'm not popping the trail ultra cherry with some sprite 50k (31 miles) or even waiting until next year's Umstead race to pace for 3 laps (37.5 miles) instead of only 2 laps this year. No, I'm going direct to 40. And it's not even a particularly easy 40, there are no loop sections where I can easily bail out. It's a rocky out and back course of mostly single track with river crossings. The only way out without finishing is by helicopter. It runs along a ridgeline on this Pine Mountain park trail. So you stay on top of a mountain for 20 miles, then turn around and come back. Sounds crazy, right? a 10.5 hour time limit gives me hope. At least it's not as long as Ironman.

This is really going to kick off the winter marathons. I'm going to be taking some time off after the end of triathlon season. Between the Lake Lure oly "A" race in early August, possibly USAT Age Group nationals also in August, then the OBX half iron in September, I'll be ready for some down time and trail running in the fall. My payback for The Snail is to get him up here to pace Umstead next april, if I can talk him into it. Knowing him, we'll each try to pace 4 laps or 50 miles next April. Or he might get registered and do the entire 100. I have no idea what else I will do between PM40 and Umstead.

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We had a great mother's day. The kids and I made french toast and scrambled eggs for Kelley and served them to her in bed. Bigun picked out Pajama Jeans and the Evil Genius got her a form pan for Cake Pops. Of course that meant Sunday afternoon was spent destroying the kitchen and getting cake batter everywhere trying to make cake pops. In true Evil Genius fashion, the cake pops turned out to be too big to stay on the plastic sticks that came in the kit, and the icing was a disaster. The chocolate was too runny, but would eventually form hard, while the vanilla was too thick and just destroyed the cake balls. And of course EG doesn't like chocolate, so the only successful pops were the ones she couldn't eat. That's the story of her life if you listen to her long enough. The entire kitchen got stuck in a clean, destroy, clean again cycle. And guess who got to do the cleaning?

Dad did of course. It was mothers day. Well, Kelley didn't exactly wake up this morning to a clean kitchen, but I did a lot more than I normally do.

Last week's training was really good. I felt like it was the first week I've put in of really solid work in a long time. Tuesday and Thursday I got in morning yoga, lunch runs, and evening swims with the RAM practices averaging 3000 yards each swim. I wanted last week to be hard core because this upcoming week is recovery and taper for the FS 50 triathlon next weekend. I can't wait to get back into tri season.

40 miles!? Nice. I am still thinking about doing an ultra. Some days I think it's a good idea and other days, like Saturday, after running a half marathon trail race and being really tired afterward, I change my mind!

About Me

I am a sterotype living Raleigh, NC with the wife and 2 kids. 40+, endurance junkie with a penchant for marathons, trail, and triathlon races. It keeps me smoke free and happy. I also enjoy organic gardening and healthy eating, and work as a software developer.